Regulation became taboo in 1991 reforms, says former CCI chief

Sudha Pillai, who led India's competition regulator, reflected on the philosophical underpinnings of the nation's landmark 1991 economic liberalisation, noting that the concept of regulatory control became deeply unfashionable during that transformative period. The shift toward market-driven policies created resistance to the kind of interventionist oversight that competition authorities might have otherwise pursued more vigorously. Speaking about the broader reform agenda, Pillai indicated that the Competition Commission of India faced constraints in addressing market concentration issues during its early years of operation. Beyond antitrust concerns, she highlighted a significant gap in the reform framework: the relative neglect of social protection mechanisms at a time when the economy was being fundamentally restructured. The former chief's observations suggest that the ideological commitment to liberalisation during the 1990s may have limited the toolkit available to policymakers seeking to balance market efficiency with social safeguards. Her remarks reflect ongoing debates in India about whether the pace and scope of economic deregulation adequately accounted for vulnerable sections of society affected by the transition from a controlled to a more open economy.